Catch You Up

As you might have guessed, I've been busy here. Busy with softball, busy with gardening, busy with work.

The Big Apple Softball League is having a pre-season round robin. How we do will determine what division we play in. The divisions range from highly competitive to recreational. We've been a recreational team up to now, but since we keep winning those championships, it's possible that they may bump us up.

And we were in good form this past Saturday. We played three games, winning two of them. We probably could have won all three, but in the second game, we tried out a few of the new guys on the pitcher's mound. Y'see, the Ball Breakers could use some depth in the bullpen this year.

The new guys... well... they need practice. It was walk-walk-walk-walk-walk-walk. Luckily, the season is young. The team we lost to had a really good pitcher. One of the best I've seen. The guy was eighty-five years old. Eighty-Five! Y'see, another reason to love softball. I've got forty-five years of softball left. If I live that long.

And how'd I do? Pretty good. I was so In The Zone in the batter's box. Didn't strike out once. Although I flied out twice. But mostly, I got on base. Love that.

And gardening. On Sunday, I headed north to Hairy Mary's. Two homo buddies of my sister started this garden place in Kintnersville years ago. Hairy Mary's has been the mainstay of the garden I've planted for my parents the past few years. But alas, when I got there, they had a few flats of pansies to choose from. And, the woman who was minding the store didn't even say hello to me. And, they had added Antiques and Fresh Cut Flowers to their sign. Uh oh. I think somebody is getting bored with running a nursery.

So I took my business elsewhere. Namely, down the river to Delaware Valley Farm and Nursery, at the foot of the bridge across the Delaware to Frenchtown. There, I was warmly greeted by the incredibly helpful proprietor, Deb. Deb claims that her partner is the one who really knows the plants, but I did great with Deb. She set me up with bunches of perennials. And 'deer resistant' perennials at that. Delaware Valley Farm and Nursery will be seeing a lot of me this season.

I headed home with a jeep full of deer resistant perennials and got to work on planting. But as soon as I stuck the shovel in the ground, I realized I had a big problem. Y'see, I planned on planting in the plot in the center of the yard. Last year I tried a vegetable garden here (at my step-mother's request). I didn't get a single tomato. It just doesn't get enough sun. So this year, I'm going with a shade garden. But nothing would thrive in this Bucks County clay. Onto the porch went the plants, and yesterday after work, I bought manure, topsoil, sand, and peat moss. This weekend, I'll spread the stuff around, and then cultivate it in. The yard full of blooms should be worth a special trip.

And work.

Wow. Tonight was the first night of the Cabinet Making Academy in earnest. Last week, we had to sit through the broken down old rummy who keeps himself in Wild Turkey by pretending to be our Safety Consultant. But tonight, we were introduced to the guy who's going to be teaching us the bulk of the material, starting with math and tools.

He's great. He knows a lot about math (engineering background) and even more about tools, which he collects. Tonight, we were tested so he could determine our baseline.

There I sat, struggling to remember how to solve for X, what happens when you multiply a negative integer and a positive integer... Man. I have forgotten so much. The recent high school graduates in our class truly wrecked the bell curve for the rest of us. All this stuff is fresh for them. The test on tools was even worse. There were exactly two questions on sanding. And I got a few others because I knew what a kerf is and what an escutcheon is.

But, come June, I'll know it all.

Wow.

It feels great to be learning again.

So like I said, busy busy busy. Boys and Sirs are gonna have to take a backseat for a while. I've got math to remember, perennials to plant, and softball games to play.

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